HOW THE SEQUESTER WILL IMPACT THE DEFENSE SECTOR

As 2012 winds to a close, so too does the time remaining for Congressional leaders and the President to reach a bargain on the fiscal cliff.

One of the major concerns is the prospect of $500 billion in automatic cuts to defense spending set to go into effect as part of the sequestration.

After the jump is a batch of links detailing how the sequestration will likely impact the larger defense community (Pentagon-both civil and military, defense industry, and defense lobbyists).

PANETTA @ SHANGRI-LA DIALOGUE: EXPLAINING US' ASIA PIVOT

On June 2, US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta delivered a keynote address at the IISS's Shangri-La Dialogue in which he outlined in greater depth more specific elements concerning the US's shift toward Asia-Pacific, fleshing out the context, driving principles, and physical and material investments to which the US is committing over the next several years, beginning now.

The overall context is one of constraints - namely economic - and of course the need to adapt to the profound changes underway caused by the emergence of Asia Pacific as a major global pole. The official line is to accomplish more with less, and to act more effectively within a series of defined limits and fixed objectives.

Most of the speech, however, was spent elaborating the four underlying principles and going into details about what the policy consequences would be. 

What are the four basic principles outlined by Panetta?

More after the jump...